Hope everyone is enjoying their day so far! I have a *TONNE* of stuff on my ‘to do’ list today so nothing to show you… but thought i’d offer up a bit of Blog Candy!! I just ordered a gorgeous Card Kit from Lil’ Scrappers which contain this set, so… i’m RAK’ing off a set!!!

I have 2 yummy acrylic stamp sets to RAK out to one lucky lady living anywhere in this great big world of ours! LOL!!! Stampendous Fresh Blossoms, and Posie Thank-you! Each set measures 2×6″. Cute and fun to use!!

~ Fresh Blossoms ~

~ Posie Thank-You ~

If you’d like to win these stamps just leave me a comment letting me know what the weather is like where you are today! Simple as that! I’ll post the winner next time I post… so either tomorrow or the next day, depending on how productive I am today! lol!!

Have a wonderful day ladies!!!

Morning ladies! What’s up for today? Same old here… but I did receive a couple exciting emails today!! Alisha from CARDS emailed me and asked for a couple of my cards from my October Afternoon Mini Kit reveal (Aug.10th) for their January issue!! So that made my day!! Thanks for letting me share!! 

And… I actually have a tonne of cards to show you today.. lol! Last night I was going through my scraps of 6×6 and found some old Imaginisce from last year so decided to dig in and make some Christmas cards! What better time than in the heat of August? lol!! I kept them all fairly simple.. nothing extrvagant.. but great for Christmas cards when you have a list a mile long! lol!!

Here we go…

And there you have it! Most of the materials are: CS - SU & Bazzill, Tags from Staples, Bling is either Kaiser Craft or MAMBI, PP is all Imaginsce (last yrs line) Poinsettias are Prima, Buttons are Misc, Distressing ink is a Cats Eye chalk ink, Ribbon is May Arts, Rub-ons are Basic Grey & MM, Punches are Martha Stewart and Fiskars! I think that about covers it!!

Have a wonderful day!!! I’m off to hang out with my gorgeous girls!! Back tomorrow!

Good morning ladies! What’s up for today? Anything exciting? I’m doing housework, kid stuff, and scrapping stuff on my ‘to do’ list.. So same old… lol!

Today I get to share my  2 Sketches 4 You DT card for the week… just a simple card today with some hand stitching, and *STILL* using up my scraps! So some older Chatterbox CS on this… yum!!

To see the Kazan’s gorgeous card and sketch, along with the rest of the amazingly talented DT cards, follow this link:

http://2sketches4you.blogspot.com/2008/08/kazans-sketch-7.html

Materials: Chatterbox CS, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Bazzill CS, Primas, misc. buttons, May Arts Ribbon, Basic Grey CS Stickers, KaiserCraft gems.

***

That’s all for today ladies! If you don’t like reptiles… don’t check out yesterdays post.. rotfl!!! I’ve had a few emails about that post.. haha!! Seems to be not eveyone is a reptile/arachnid lover.. ;) 

Have a great day!! See you tomorrow!

Good afternoon ladies! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! Today I took the girls to the mall for lunch, shopping, and to see Ray’s Travelling Reptile zoo! We’ve seen them a few times before and have always enjoyed their shows! Well today they were featuring animals of the “Old West”… so the girls were *VERY* excited as they’re fans of all things creepy crawly… lol!! I on the other hand am not. Snakes give me the eebie jeebies, but don’t really bother me, as long as I don’t have to hold onto them.. lol!

I thought i’d share a few shots from today…. look for them on a LO coming near you soon.. haha!!

Sorry but nothing ’scrappy’ to show you today… I have been scrapping.. just can’t share just yet! Check back tomorrow for my 2 Sketches Dt card!! Have a great day ladies!!

Morning ladies! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend planned ahead of them! I’m just hanging out with my kids.. doing some housework, scrapping, etc… Dh works all weekend, (as usual), so nothing exciting happening here this weekend.. same old! We had quite the storm yesterday… major windows, rumbling thunder, and dime sized hail to top if off! This stuff was bouncing off of everything… I thought our windows were going to bust! lol!!! This had melted a bit before I snapped a pic.. so they were good sized! lol! Glad I wasn’t out in it.. OUCH!!

~ The Sweetest Visitor ~

Yesterday one of my best friends came over for a nice visit, we sat to chat and have a coffee! She brought over her sweet 4 month old baby girl… my friend has went through cancer treatments (at only 35, and was told she’d never have children again) and has had 2 miracles since then! We’re both tied at 4 children, and very much DONE with the baby days! lol!!! I’d like to share a couple pics of Alexandria I took yesterday… she is such a sweetheart.. absolutely angelic!

And I couldn’t resist snapping of pic of her precious baby feet…

Gotta love precious baby bits!! LOL!

*****

~ Lil’ Scrappers Card  Sketch Challenge ~

Now onto business… Michy posted a card sketch over at Lil’ Scrappers yesterday for a DT challenge, so I decided to give it a go… this is what I came up with:

Materials: October Afternoon pp, MM Felt Alphas, KaiserCraft gems, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Prima Blossom, Bazzill Brad, misc. ribbon & button.

You can see Michy’s card and sketch here:

*Note.. you must register in order to read/see the forums. Thanks!

http://www.lilscrappers.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3671

****

~ Photoshop Tutorial ~

Recently i’ve had a lot of questions and emails about my photo’s… I am definitely not an expert and don’t claim to be.. lol! But I do think most of my pics look pretty good when i’m done with them! So i’m going to share a quick & easy tutorial on how to touch up your photo’s and get the border around them like I do… I hope this isn’t ‘clear as mud’, if you have any ?’s, feel free to post here in the comments section or email and i’ll get back to you…

Here goes…

 *I am using PhotoShop CS3 Extended Version along with a Nikon D80 DSLR. I’m going to “assume” that Photoshop Elements, and earlier version of Photoshop will all do this using the same method. I’ve only been using Photoshop for a couple months.. so am a newbie too! lol!

Step 1:

- Open the picture you’d like to edit in Photoshop. Make your adjustments until you’re happy with your picture. I adjust the colour, contrast, brightness, then apply an unsharp mask to my photo’s. After that I’m usually pretty happy.

*In case anyone wants to know how to edit pics quickly, hit image, then adjustments, then auto colour, auto contrast, and play around with the brightness/contrast bar if those 2 steps don’t do it for you! But usually they will for general card/layout pictures.

I also always use an ‘unsharp mask’ on my pics… to do this go to ‘filter’, ’sharpen’, ‘unsharp mask’. The settings for my cards are set at Amount 100%, Radius 3.5%, and Threshold 0%. Works for me, and makes my cards and items look sharp and crisp!

Step 2:

- Go up to Layer and click ‘new, then layer’, a little box will come up asking what you want to name it, I just leave it as is and hit ‘Ok’.

Step 3:

- Click on the rectangular marquee tool (looks like a box with dashed lines) and then click on your picture about ¼ - ½ “ inside of your pic. Then right click and drag your dotted line around the pic where you want it placed, it should now be a blinking dashed line. Right click on it, and hit ‘stroke’.

- In the number field enter the number 9px, if you don’t have white in the box below it, click on the box and choose white for your colour (or you can do black too…) Location should say ‘inside’, mode ‘hard mix’, transparency at 100%. Hit ‘ok’. Now click outside the picture and your dotted lines will disappear.

Note - you can enter ANY number, you choose.. but let’s just play by my settings this time.. lol! The larger the number you use, the thicker your line is going to be.

Step 4:

Find the paint bucket tool and click on it. Carry it over and pour it inbetween the stroked line and the outside of the pic.. so your ¼” area or whatever. Now over on the right hand side under the layers tab there’s a bar that says ‘transparency’, move that over from 100% to about 45%, give or take.

Step 5:

Time to get a new layer going… go up to Layer once again, and hit layer, new. Leave the settings as they were before.

Step 6:

Click on the rectangular marquee tool again, and drag a rectangle around your picture where the transparent layer meets the rest of the picture. You should have a rectangle flashing line again… right click hit ‘stroke’, then ‘ok’. Your settings will be the same as they were last time which is the way you want them. LoL!

If you mess up along the way, just go to ‘edit’ and hit ’step backward’ and redo. Don’t forget those layers either or else you will not get the effect.. I know this. lol!!

And.. that’s about it! J Oh, if you want a fast & easy watermark, just hit the “T” (text tool) choose your font and font size on the upper bar, click on your pic where you want your blog name/signature to be. Type it in.. up in the upper right hand of PS there will be a checkmark, after each line of text, hit that to commit to the changes.

Then just click save and voila! J

Hope this helps ladies!!

*****

I’d also like to share a couple small *TooTs*! The wonderfully talented Lea from Cupcakes & Sunshine chose my CPS card this week for their reader Spotlight!!!

http://cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com/2008/08/cps-77-reader-updates-and-designer.html

I *HEART* Lea and her gorgeous creations… you can check out her amazing work here:

http://leascupcakesandsunshine.blogspot.com/

One more small *TooT* to share! I was contacted by Kerry from Scrapbook & Cards Today the other day asking me to showcase my October Afternoon Bday Date tag album from my DT reveal on the 1st on their blog in a couple weeks!! So that’s kinda cool!! You can see their blog here… so many cool ideas and tutorials! Don’t miss it!

http://www.scrapbookandcards.com/blog.html

*****

Ok ladies… I’ve been working on this post for way too long, so i’m off to do something productive… Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!!! Hugs!!

Morning everyone! It’s a beautiful day today here in sunny, Ontario! I plan on going out this afternoon with my girls to pick up a few things, and then back to do housework and dinner! Exciting huh? lol! So last night I stayed up WAY too late and did some shopping online.. we *REALLY* need a new dining room set.. ours is old and battered.. haha! So i’ve decided it’s time to invest in a new dining room table and chairs! I think i’ve found the perfect set for us! Since there’s 6 of us, we need a BIG set.. lol!  And would be nice to have a couple extra seats for company as well! And just think.. more room for spreading out all my scrap stuff all over.. haha!! This is the set i’ve decided on… Dh says whatever makes me happy.. lol! He’s easy.. I love the ‘country’ feel to it and think the kids will love it too!

*****

Now I have a cute and very easy card to show you! I made this for a challenge over at Daring Cardmakers! This is the first challenge i’ve tried with them, but when I saw the challenge, it was the perfect opportunity to try one of these cute cards i’ve seen everywhere lately!

You can see the challenge here:

http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/2008/08/scrumdiddlyumptious.html

And my card here…

Materials: Imaginisce pp, Misc. Ribbon, AC Foam Thickers, Stampin’ Up Scallop Punch, MM Blossoms, FISKARS Threading Water Punch, (*See down below for opportunity to win one of these!!!), misc. buttons, CBX pp.

~ Directions ~

Step 1: Cut card base to 4 x5 “, score, fold in half at 2.5″. Round corners.

Step 2: Cut inner pp to size and adhere to card.

Step 3: Attach popsicle stick to back of card with glue dots.

Step 4: Take small scallop punch and punch “bite marks” in upper right hand of card. If you don’t have this punch, be creative! Draw in with pencil then hand cut! Or use scallop deco. scissors!

Step 5: Tie ribbon around top of popsicle stick, and embellish as desired.

If you try out this card i’d love for you to come back and link me up so I can take a peek!! Have fun!!

*****

BLOG  CANDY ALERT!!

Anyone interested in some BLOG CANDY?? You have a chance to one of the hottest punches around, and one I use ALL THE TIME! A FISKARS Threading Water border punch!! Along with some scrumptious Basic Grey goodies!!! YUM!!

This is what you can win…

1st Prize!!!

2nd Prize!!

3rd Prize!!

Pretty *Scrumptious* if I do say so myself! LOL!!!

Just follow this link to Sheetload to find out all the details:

http://sheetload.blogspot.com/2008/08/show-us-your-sheetload-and-win-august.html

Good luck ladies!

That’s all for today.. have a wonderful day! Hugs!!

PS - Check back on the weekend as i’m going to be doing a tutorial on how to make a border on your pictures like I do in Photoshop. I assume it’s pretty *close* to the same in Photoshop Elements..

Morning ladies! Bright and beautiful today… but calling for thunderstorms later on.. but what else is new? lol! I managed to get *THREE* cards done last night! Woohoo! lol!! Now I need to get my butt in gear and finish up a card order, and start on a HUGE Xmas card order I have to do.. haha! Anyone wanna help me make 100 Xmas cards? lol! Have you started making your Christmas cards yet? How many Christmas cards do you have to make this year? I’m thinking my number is going to be around the 250 number.. so I *REALLY* need to get started or i’m going to be doomed! lol!!

Am I A Scrap Addict?

I have some exciting news to share with you today! Deanne from “Am I A Scrap Addict” has asked me to join her Card Sketch DT over on her sketch blog! I’m a sucker for sketches.. so couldn’t resist!! I’m excited to be a part of her DT for the next 6 months and hope you’ll join in the fun with me!!

Be sure to check out her fabulous sketches and play along!!

http://a-scrapaddict.blogspot.com/

And here is card I made last night based on this sketch from Deanne…

And my card.. using *SCRAPS*!! lol! I really need to make a dent in my scrap folder.. so I’m making myself use all scraps until I receive my next DT kits!!! YUM!!!

Materials: Doodlebug Velvet CS, Bo Bunny pp, Scenic Route pp, 7 Gypsies Sticker, Prima, MM Blossoms, misc. buttons, May Arts Ribbon, Kaiser Craft Pearls, Embroidery Thread, FISKARS Threading Water border punch, DCWV Rub Ons (I think that’s what they’re called anyways.. lol!)

*****

Q & A

I was asked a question the other day about my photo’s and forgot to answer it up till now…

Arianne August 10, 2008 at 10:31 am Edit

Congrats!
As always your cards look stunning!

(I was wondering about your photos. How do you make them look so amazing?)

Arianne.. first of all, thank-you for the compliments! I’ll just tell you what I use to take my pics and make them pretty.. I use a Nikon D80 DSLR, and have a bagfull of lenses, but mostly use my 35-80mm, or my 50mm lens. They seem to be my standby’s for my scrapping pics. Then I use PhotoShop CS3 Extended Version to pretty them up! I will adjust the colour, contrast, brightness, etc.. place an unsharp mask on my pics, etc.. basically just play around with the settings, and then ‘border’ them to give them a little bit of ‘extra’ oomph! lol! My pictures don’t come out of my camera looking like this.. I only wish! LoL!!

If you don’t want to invest in PhotoShop, as it is quite pricey, I would suggest downloading Picasa from Google and using it to brighten and sharpen your pictures. You can also do some other basic functions with it using just a single “click”, and for *free*, it really can’t be beat! I used to use it before I was “fluent” in photoshop.. haha! User friendly and easy to boot! No ‘learning curve’ whatsoever.. lol!

Here’s the link to Download it…

http://picasa.google.com/download/

I hope this answers your question and helps you out! Please let me know if you have any other ?’s or need any help.. also feel free to email me personally.. you can find my email under the “Contact Me” tab above.

****

CPS #77

Now onto my CPS #77 card for this week! I really love the CPS sketches and happen to stalk errr.. admire a few of the Sketch Artists at CPS!! So I really try to get the CPS challenge done weekly if possible!

To see this weeks sketch hop on over to CPS to see the fabulous sketch and all the inspiring cards!! YUM!!

http://cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com/2008/08/cps77-part-2-sponsored-by-inque-botique.html

And here is my card for this week… flipped on it’s side!

Materials: Imaginisce, Scenic Route, Chatterbox pp’s, May Arts Ribbon, AC Chipboard Thickers, Prima Poinsettia, Misc. buttons & twine, FISKARS border punch.

Ok ladies… that’s it for today!! Have a wonderful day!! See you tomorrow!

Morning ladies… Gorgeous day here today… we’ll see if it stays that way… lol! I’ve been so busy lately and totally forgot to post my 2 Sketches card yesterday.. ack!! Haven’t had too much time for creating besides my DT stuff… hoping to play today though!

So without further ado, my DT card from Laura’s 2 Sketches 4 You card this week… you can see Laura’s beautiful gift bag (she was extra creative this week!!) and sketch here.. you DO NOT want to miss out on playing this week.. the prize up for grabs is a Mini Scor-it along with carrying bag!!! WOW! So follow this link and get scrappin’!! lol!

http://2sketches4you.blogspot.com/2008/08/lauras-sketch-6.html

2 Sketches 4 You

Materials: Scenic Route pp, MM Felt blossom, FISKARS border punch, Kaiser Craft Gems, Ribbon is Cosmo Crate, and I think that about covers it!

***

I’m also going to share with you the MOST SIMPLE card i’ve EVER made.. lol! I posted a challenge on Lil’ Scrappers to create a card with 5 items or less.. it nearly killed me i’ll have you know.. and this will be the first and last time I ever create a card with so little on it.. haha!! Looks so plain to me.. but it did the trick!

If you’d like to play along with this challenge, you can find the challenge here:

http://www.lilscrappers.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3592&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

If you’re not a member of Lil’ Scrappers you’ll need to register to see the forums, etc.. but it’s a fabulous board and I know you’ll love it!!

That’s it for today ladies.. have a wonderful day! Back tomorrow!

Good morning ladies!! Blah here today… I was hoping to get out with the girls today but that just may not be the case.. looks like i’ll have to stay in and scrap.. LOL!

Today I have the Lil’ Scrappers August Mini Project Kit reveal to show you!! I had SO much fun with this kit, and the pp is definitely one of my Top 3 fave papers companies to work with *EVER*! YUM!!!

Here is our August Mini Project…

Lil' Scrappers August Mini Project Kit - October Afternoon Detour

Now for my creations I made with this kit!

~ Scenic Route Grid Album ~

~ Layout ~

~ Cards ~

~ Birthday Tag Album ~

And there you have it!!! I think i’m going to need to rebuy this line.. haha!

You can find this August Min Project Kit up for preorder later on www.lilscrappers.ca

Have a great day ladies!!! Back tomorrow!

Happy Saturday ladies! Hope everyone is enjoying their day! I’ve been hanging around here today with the girls.. have a chicken roasting in the oven, smells *SO* good, and i’ll be making up the rest of the ‘fixin’s’ after i’m done this blog post.. yum!

Ok.. i’ll start with a *TOOT*!! Yesterday after being out for the day I came home to  an email from PaperCrafts! They asked me for 2 of my cards, A baby card based on a sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You, and a Hello butterfly card to be published in their March/April ‘09 issue!!! This is my first time being published with Paper Crafts so I was pretty excited!! Thanks for letting me share my happy news with you!

You should see/hear it here right now… I think we’re in for a doozie of a storm.. dark clouds are rolling, and it is rumbling like lions.. eek! lol!! Really hoping we don’t get it too badly… guess i’m about to find out! If I see anything good i’ll snap a few pics to share with you!! The temperature is dropping too as there’s a cool breeze coming through the window.. and there’s the rain.. just like the gates of heaven opened up!! WOW!

Anyways.. i’ve actually been scrapping like a madwoman lately.. just not much that I can show you yet! lol! I did manage to get a card done today.. this one is based on a sketch my friend whipped up for me… I had these K&Co. scraps sitting on my table so decided to use them up!

Materials: K&Co. pp, Bazzill CS, Prima blossoms, (not sure who makes the *BIG* one) doodlebug & misc. buttons, MAMBI bling, AC Thickers, Fabricland Eyelet lace, FISKARS border Lace punch, Stampin’ Up white Kraft ink, and a white uniball (? I think) Gel pen! Love these things!

Well that’s it for today!! Enjoy your weekend everyone!! Be sure to check back tomorrow because I get to reveal my Lil’ Scrappers Project Kit!!!! I absolutely *LOVED* working with this kit and KNOW it’s gonna be a hot seller!!! YUM!

See you tomorrow with a bunch of stuff to show you!!!